Bria is excited to share the news:

(Don't ask me how she got that knife in her hand.)

Sam got a new job! We went out to celebrate a couple weeks ago when we got the news. And Bria was hammin' it up all night. She even attacked me a couple times because she was just too happy to contain herself:
Sam's started working yesterday at a production company based in Bethesda working as a junior editor on the show American Loggers, which airs on the Discovery Channel.
Three cheers for Sam! We're so excited about this new step.

Fairfax County Fair-apalooza

Last weekend, we went to the Fairfax County Fair with Matt, Jen, and kids.
The day started on a potentially horrible note when we parked, got out of the car, and realized Sam's phone was missing. After a long and thorough search, we headed to the front of the park, where, upon entering, we had switched drivers (from me to Sam-- the parking situation was stressing me out). There was Sam's phone, lying face up in the middle of the street, hot from being in the sun for probably 30 minutes. It so easily could have been stolen or run over. Let's just say it would have put a damper on our day. But, disaster averted! Hooray!
The weather was a little cooler-- in the 80s-- so we enjoyed a nice stroll around to see various animals and county fair what-not. Bria, as always, was full of rapture as she surveyed the animals. She even got to pet a baby chick.
We paid an arm and a leg for mediocre food (as expected) and let the kids run around. Bria loves her cousin Mallory:
The highlight of the fair may have been Bria's first (and second) carousel ride. She named her first horse "Blue" and her second horse "Friend." She's really creative, that one.And, just like any time we do anything out of our typical routine, Bria has been talking about the fair non-stop. Oh, Fairfax County. You're such a delight!

Don't Want to Forget

At age two and three months:

My favorite things Bria says lately is "Hi! I'm Bria!" She says it constantly and usually in a high, squeaky voice. It is often accompanied by a hand shake and a "nice to meet you!"

Her imagination is starting to blossom. Apparently, Swiper the Fox has been living in our couch (behind the cushions) and Bria lives in a constant state of terror that he will get her. There are also frogs and elephants who live in her blankets, who all have to be removed at nap and bedtime.

She also loves to talk on the phone (usually a tv remote or a domino) to her various cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents, and friends. One of my favorite pretend conversations she had was with my oldest sister, Amy:
"Hi Amy. What a doin? I watchin' Dora a Boots. You wanna come? Oh. You in Cannafunna (california)? Oh. Ok. I love you! Bye!"
Her favorite books are Sandra Boynton books. On the back of each book has a small picture of many other books by Boynton. After we read any of the books, Bria points to each picture, we tell her what book it is, and she says "I have it?" If the answer is yes, we continue to the next book. If the answer is no, she says "at the library?" to which I say yes.

Bria has started to understand some reasoning. Today she asked if she could walk on a sloped ledge by some outside stairs and I said no. She said: "it's too dangerous?" I replied yes, even though it was actually because I just wanted to go inside. She also asked to go to the play place at Chic-Fil-A, and I said no (I don't always say no!) and she said, "the slide is too big for me?" And if I tell her not to pick something up off the ground, she responds, "it's dirty?" or "it's not ours?" She may not always truly understand why she can or can't do certain things, but at least she gets that reasons do exist.

Bria is a real daddy's girl. She is always anxious for Sam to come home from work. He usually calls when he leaves work, and then he calls again when he's close to see if we feel like picking him up from the metro. The other day, Bria and I were in the car finishing up some errands when Sam called as he was leaving the office. Bria was so excited, and she called out from the back seat, "is he close?" to which I responded, no, he wasn't close, we were going to go home and make dinner, and then it would be time for Daddy to come home. She was really upset about this. She kept saying "no go home! no make dinner! get daddy!" I explained that he wasn't close yet, he was just leaving work, and he was just getting on the train, so we couldn't get him. Bria then proceeded to tell me to drive to Washington D.C. and get Daddy at his building. I was astonished that she understood the situation well enough to know that there was more than one way for Dad to get home, and the fastest way would be for us to drive directly to him. As charmed as I was by her quick thinking, I couldn't not be lured into rush-hour traffic, so I had to take a tantrum-throwing Bria home with me. I have a feeling she will be very crafty teenager.

Bria's favorite imaginary friend is her sister. And, no, that is not an announcement. But Bria's "sister" follows her everywhere. In fact, Bria told me today that they are getting married. I'm not even going to try to explain the problems with that one.

One of the cutest things I have ever seen Bria do is try to catch a butterfly. She was running in circles, reaching for it, calling "no butterfly! no fly away! come back here butterfly! get over here! stop it! come 'ere butterfly!" so darling.

The Ol' Red-and-Black

Last week, Sam and I went to a DC United game.
It was insanely hot. Seriously, I don't know how anyone could actually like humidity. The heat resulted in a really fun, poofy hairdo and a bright red, sticky face for me, which I only allowed to be captured thusly: I'm just full of team spirit. That's all.

Sadly, the Seattle Sounders beat our poor United 1-0. Our team just kind of fell apart there at the end, and I found myself exclaiming "how hard is it to just get the ball in the goal?!" Clearly, with my four years of soccer experience I have room to critique their playing.
Thanks to Hannah's student discount, we were sitting in the cheering section, and let me say, there is nothing that will make you feel old like being surrounded by a bunch of drunk 18-22 year-olds. But they sure know how to get the crowd pumped!
As my first major league soccer game, this was great exposure to the sport. Next time, I am totally painting my face and bringing a vuvuzela.

Peril in the Chesapeake

This weekend, we went to the beach
Hannah I talked about it a while in advance, but we didn't nail down any plans until about an hour before we left. So we threw our stuff together and headed off the the Chesapeake Bay, about 45 minutes from our house.
We ate a little lunch
And played in the (HOT) sand
Bria even sat in a custom-dug chair, crafted by Rob
The weather was gross. Oppressively hot and humid, with neither shade nor breeze to be found. And the water was warm. I still had a lovely time-- even though it's apparently jellyfish season. We began a little jellyfish graveyard that morphed into a rather large one as we fished jellyfish after jellyfish out of the water with sticks (and some crab shells too)
And then, Sam, Rob, and Bria were out in the wonderfully shallow water when Sam spotted a jellyfish perilously close to where Bria was crawling. As he went to grab her, he got stung.
Now, despite what you may have heard about how to treat jellyfish stings, the best treatment we found was rinsing the area with rubbing alcohol.
We were just so relieved it wasn't Bria who got stung. Eventually we just avoided the water, because there were jellyfish at every turn. But, you know, the water is only half the fun of going to the beach! So . . . let's hear it for sand!

Texas Part Two

The remainder of our Texas trip included . . .

Bria's determination to carry her own suitcase
Sam turning the big 2-8.

Bria having nine cousins to entertain her everyday . . .

which made up for her getting about nine hours of sleep a night instead of 13
(but still being pretty happy)

Family pictures (in our reunion shirts!) (and an ant bite that made me shriek at an embarrassing decibel)
Searching for frogs in the yard

And catching a couple

Stealing naps in the car (and being so sleep-deprived, Bria feel asleep mid-draw)

A small crush on a great-with-little-kids cousin Trevor

The Alamo (and so much heat and humidity it makes for an awkward family photo)
Tons of fun hanging with the family
And, finally, four not-so-horrible flights. (thank goodness for new toys and candy)(The only two exceptions to the otherwise easy travel days were both on our last flight, when, minutes after take-off, Bria exclaimed "my seat's all wet!" And, indeed, she had experienced a major diaper leak. Hence the lack of pants in the above picture. Shortly after that, while climbing from her seat to Sam's lap, Bria kicked a full cup of icy apple juice right into my lap. That made for a comfortable couple of hours.)

All in all, we had an awesome trip. We're already looking forward to the next Mangum reunion in 2012!

Texas Part One: Sea World

We spent last week in San Antonio, Texas with Sam's family for the biannual Mangum Family Reunion. We had a great time with everyone, and I think it may have been my favorite reunion so far. I was a little nervous about going Texas in July, but (joy of joys!) it was actually cooler in Texas than it was in DC last week. (Not that it was cool by any means.)
Our camera has been on the fritz, but just a couple days before we left for Texas, Sam got the new iphone 4 for his birthday. The camera on the iphone is actually better than our Canon camera. So I only took one picture with our regular camera, and then we just had fun using the iphone all week. We took hundreds of pictures and tons of video. I'm just picking a couple highlights for the blog.
We went to Sea World two of the days, and as I could have guessed, Bria loooooved it.
Part of this was because I pretty much let Bria eat or drink whatever she wanted while were in Texas (with the obvious exception of soda). She wouldn't drink water at Sea World, and in a desperate attempt to keep her hydrated, I let her guzzle lemonade and fruit punch all day. Part of my soul died a little, but at least she didn't get dehydrated. (Right?!?!)On the first day, we took Bria to the little kids splash pad, where Bria practically died from joy running around in the water. She has very recently gained courage when it comes to water (like, the day or two before we left), so I was a little astonished when she ran around sticking her head in full blasts of water. She was lucky her Aunt Rachel was willing to take her around in the water (because I didn't want to get wet). I think it was the highlight of Bria's life.


At first I made her wear her cousin Mallory's sandals (I made her wear full on shoes and socks the first day thinking it would be more comfortable), because I have public water place germ phobias, but then, like with the fruit punch, I turned a blind eye and let her go barefoot.

We also saw two sea lion shows, which thrilled Bria to no end:

We also saw Shamu twice. Bria had a love/hate relationship with the shows, because there is a lot of down time between tricks, and a lot of dancing and music by overenthusiastic performers, but, hey, I think she did pretty well considering her age.

We saw penguins:
And, the coolest part of Sea World-- we got to feed dolphins. As we were walking in to Sea World the second day, and had yet to see the dolphins, Bria kept saying "I'm coming dolphins! I'm coming dolphins!" It was awesome. And they did not disappoint. You can buy fish and then walk right up to a tank and feed the dolphins. So cool!And once we ran out of fish, Bria kept saying "I don't have any fish, buddy. Sorry!"
Poor guy just wants some fish from me. Sorry, buddy!